Festive Rumourmill: Shadows Skilltree

I've got a pretty good idea of what I want in the initial skilltrees for each class, and while some of them don't require new code in the app to be able to perform them, some of them really do.

This was the case in the Rogue Shadows skilltree, where I had two (kinda three) abilities that really needed a lot of code to be written to implement. Lets go through it, and I'll have a laugh on the things that added extra speedbumps to delivering this quickly.

First up, Backstab is the entry skill for the entire tree. It is an Activated attack that grows in strength and applies a decent damage over time effect to the target, via a melee attack.

Next up, Melt Away is a skill that requires Backstab and is a passive skill that makes the character gain less threat. Each level will grant a reduction to the threat gained no matter the actions being done.

Continuing in the same branch, Blind is an active ability that puts a strong debuff on the target, again delivered via a melee attack. You'll need to have at lest one point in Melt Away to unlock this.

Over on the other side, Unseen Hand is an attack that lets you attack a distant enemy as if you were in melee combat with them. It's unlocked by Backstab but builds on it, letting you hit targets that you are blocked from getting to, or to assist an ally without moving.

Sneak is unlocked with Unseen Hand and lets you move about the combat area to places you might not normally be able to get to. The more points you put into it, the further you're able to move with this.

Misdirection is the skill that merges these two branches again, needing both Blind and Sneak but will allow you to shift a good deal of your threat to an ally. This will be particularly useful after you've built up a few actions with your character to get on the radar of various enemies in the combat.

Finally, Dark Places is a skill that rogues are able to pick up after spending a lot of time in questionable company. It is an Unlock ability, meaning it merely opens up abilities to be used - but it will let you summon in help from allies you've come across over time.

So, both Melt Away and Misdirection needed some extra code to be added to really change the way that threat is tallied up. Nothing too massive, but enough to need some work - but it was the Dark Places abilities that made me really work. Adding in a creature partway through a combat may seem simple, but the amount of settings needed to make it just quite right took some time to figure out. The good news is that this now works perfectly, so I'll be able to use this code as a foundation for other skills in other classes that will also summon in allies to your side of combat - or you know, perhaps monsters will be able to summon in allies on their own too!